Cyclone Ingrid hits Queensland coast

Page Tools

Tropical Cyclone Ingrid has crossed the far north Queensland
coast in a remote area south of Lockhart River.

Carrying destructive winds of around 230kph the category four
cyclone swept inland accompanied by a storm surge of around two
metres on top of rising tides that were expected to inundate low
lying areas.

The Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre in Brisbane said Ingrid made
landfall about 30km south-east of Lockhart River, where 700
residents were evacuated to shelters early Thursday.

Speaking from a command centre at the Lockhart River police
station, Lockhart River Council CEO Peter Buckland said residents
had taken all the precautions they could.

"Outside trees are bending and branches are coming down ... we
are just waiting to see what happens and hoping it doesn't come
right over us," Mr Buckland said.

"What we've done during the night is evacuate the people to four
identified evacuation centres, one is the bottom floor of the
council office, the (police) watchhouse, the amenities block at the
school and the local land and sea centre.

"There's probably about 700 people in Lockhart River we have
moved this morning."

After being downgraded to a category three cyclone, Ingrid
picked up strength overnight and was reclassified to category four
before it swept onto the coast.

Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre supervising meteorologist Phil
Alford, said although Ingrid was expected to weaken after crossing
the coast, she was not done yet and was expected to sweep right
across Cape York Peninsula and into the Gulf of Carpentaria and
strengthen again.

"They will still get some damaging winds in that (Lockhart
River) area," Mr Alford said.

He said the cyclone would weaken once it was over land because
of the friction effect of the land surface.

"So it will weaken to below category four, possibly back down to
category two or category one, but its expected to go right across
Cape York and then come out the other side," Mr Alford said.

"The latest warning we've just issued has been extended to cover
the entire span of Cape York Peninsula between Mapoon and Cape
Keerweer and Weipa is included in that."

Mr Alford said the cyclone would still produce damaging winds on
the other side of the cape.

"Then it will head out into the Gulf of Carpentaria where the
waters are three or four degrees above average, so it's quite warm
out there - wonderful breeding ground for tropical cyclones."

Mr Alford said after the cyclone intensified again it would
continue heading west across the gulf and be close to the coast of
the Northern Territory by Saturday.

"Fairly soon it will be the responsibility of the Darwin
Tropical Cyclone centre and we can close down until the next one,"
Mr Alford said.

A spokeswoman for the Queensland Department of Emergency
Services said the area around Lockhart River appeared to have
escaped any major damage from the cyclone.

"Indications are that there's been no major structural damage
and no injuries," she said.

The spokeswoman said the biggest problem was expected to be
flooding from the torrential rain and the storm surge expected on
top of high tides in the area.

"We've still got crews on standby there because we expect some
extensive flooding," she said.